"The pig farms under your jurisdiction have the problem of illegal pollution discharge, so I won't publish it in the newspaper if I give you some money." "If someone reports that the enterprise you are in charge of has serious pollution, I will not report it to my superiors if you give me some benefits." A few days ago, the People's Court of Tanghe County, Henan Province publicly sentenced a case of extortion by posing as a reporter. The defendant Wang was sentenced to one year and five months in prison and fined 5000 yuan; The defendants Liu and Li were sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment and a fine of 3000 yuan. Since January 2021, a man, Wang, has been carrying out extortion under the banner of "reporter". He has extorted money from a township government, enterprise, school, hospital, etc. for 16 times in 10 months, extorting 38100 yuan. Wang found some content that could attract public attention through the mayor's message board or other websites and media, and then went to the field to check and take photos. Then, according to the contact number of the responsible person published by the competent government department, he posed a threat to the superior department by posing as a media reporter to expose or report, forcing the relevant units or individuals to pay the sealing fee, oil fee and other fees. After repeatedly committing crimes, Mr. Wang worried that it was unsafe to use his WeChat collection, found his friend, Mr. Liu, and asked for a WeChat collection code, promising to give Mr. Liu a benefit. Liu found Li again and said that he needed to borrow the collection code temporarily, and he would pay a premium. Li provided his wife's WeChat collection code to Liu, and Liu gave Li's wife's WeChat collection code to Wang for use. Later, Mr. Li found that all the money received was marked with "reporter's fees". When asked, Mr. Liu promised to increase the money, and Mr. Li stopped asking. Later, due to the increasing amount of extortion, Wang was worried that his crime was too serious and voluntarily surrendered. The People's Court of Tanghe County held that the defendant Wang had repeatedly extorted money and property from others, although the amount of each crime was small, the number of times was large, and the social harm was great. His behavior had constituted the crime of extortion. In view of the fact that the defendant Wang Mou can voluntarily surrender to the case, truthfully confess his crime, and has returned all the economic losses suffered by the victims, and has obtained the understanding of all the victims, he can be given a lighter punishment. The defendants Liu and Li played the role of providing the collection code and supporting the collection when Wang was blackmailing. They were accomplices and could honestly confess their crimes after arriving at the case, so they should be given a lighter or mitigated punishment. The above judgment was made according to law. The judge reminded that the public can verify their identity through "China Reporters Network" when they are interviewed by the media. If the other party asks for property in the name of supervision, it should immediately report to the public security organ, so as not to give the lawbreakers an opportunity to avoid being deceived and suffering losses. (Liu Xinshe)